In order to isolate a cholesterol-lowering compound from Alpinia katsumadai, an inhibitor for acyl-CoA : cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT), an enzyme responsible for the cholesterol ester formation in liver, was purified, its chemical structure was determined, and in vivo and in vitro inhibition activities were performed. In a high fat diet mouse model, we discovered that the ethanol extract o...

The antimicrobial activities of the ethyl acetate, acetone and methanol extract of 12 plant species were studied. The extract of Capsicum annuum (red pepper) (fruit) Zingiber officinale (ginger) (root), Cuminum cyminum (cumin), Alpinia ficinarum (galingale), Coriandrum sativum (coriander), Cinnamomun zeylanicum Nees (cinnamomun), Origanum onites L. (thyme), Folium sennae (senna), Eugenia caryop...

A bioactivity-guided chemical examination of the acetone extract of the rhizomes of Alpinia galanga led to the isolation of six secondary metabolites, eucalyptol derivative (1) and phenylpropanoids (2–6). The structures of all of the isolated compounds (1– 6) were elucidated on the basis of their spectral data. The isolated compounds (1–6) were in vitro assayed against active and dormant phenot...

A new diarylheptanoid containing a chalcone moiety, katsumain H (1), was isolated from the seeds of Alpinia katsumadai. The structure was elucidated using a combination of 1D/2D NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry data analysis. The absolute configurations of C-3, C-5, and C-7 in 1 were assigned based on its optical rotation and after comparing its NMR chemical shifts with those of its diast...

Rhizome extracts of some members of the medicinal Zingiberales are widely used in dietary intake as well as in the traditional system of medicine. Curcumin, the chrome orange-yellow coloring compound present in turmeric rhizomes, has long been known to possess antioxidant property. Crude methanol extracts of the rhizomes of 11 species--Alpinia allughas, A. galanga, Curcuma amada, C. caesia, C. ...